Tom Hanks has confirmed he will play spaceman Major Matt Mason in the movie based on a 1960s action figure.

The Apollo 13 and Toy Story star told movie blog The Wrap that Robert Zemeckis, who he has worked with on Forrest Gump and The Polar Express, will direct the film.

Tom revealed: "I started tinkering with the story after Larry Crowne [the 2011 film he wrote, directed and starred in with Julia Roberts]."

The actor - who used to play with a Major Matt Mason doll as a child - has co-written the space adventure, with Speed's Graham Yost. The project has been in the pipeline for several years.

Major Matt was an astronaut who worked on the Moon. The toy was launched in 1966, three years before man first made it to the Moon, and fans could collect three other action figures of Major Matt's friends to play with - Sergeant Storm, Doug Davis and Lieutenant Jeff Long. They fought a team of bad guys, led by the evil Captain Lazer. The line was axed in the 70s but obviously still has a place in Tom's heart.

The story is set on the moon, following a team of people based at a space station.

Yost previously revealed: "There's no bad guys. There are no aliens. Nothing like that. It's just, can you survive?"